IT TAKES TIME: IMPACTS OF EARLY HEAD START THAT LEAD TO REDUCTIONS IN MATERNAL DEPRESSION TWO YEARS LATER

Authors

Rachel Chazan-Cohen, U.S. Department of Health and Human ServicesFollow
Catherine Ayoub, Harvard UniversityFollow
Barbara Alexander Pan, Harvard University
Lori Roggman, Utah State UniversityFollow
Helen Raikes, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow
Lorraine McKelvey, University of Arkansas
Leanne Whiteside-Mansell, University of Arkansas
Andrea Hart, University of Arkansas

Date of this Version

1-1-2007

Comments

Published in INFANT MENTAL HEALTH JOURNAL, Vol. 28(2), 151–170 (2007) © 2007 Michigan Association for Infant Mental Health This article is a U.S. government work and, as such, is in the public domain in the United States of America. Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com).

Abstract

The Early Head Start Research and Evaluation Project, a random-assignment evaluation, found a broad pattern of positive impacts for children and families. However, there were no program impacts on depression or use of mental health services by the time children reached age 3, at the end of the Early Head Start (EHS) program. This paper presents recent findings from the follow-up study in the spring prior to the children entering kindergarten, when a positive program impact emerged for reducing maternal depression. Results show that earlier program impacts on children and parents (when children were 2 and 3 years of age) mediated, or led to, the delayed impact on maternal depression. The combination of the most promising child factors accounted for over 57% of the later impact on depression, while the most promising parent factors accounted for over 35% of the later impact on depression. Implications for EHS programs are discussed.